3. Fascination (1971)
A group of middle class, genteel women drink blood from an ox, freshly strung up in an abattoir to cure anaemia. Meanwhile, a thief on the run takes refuge in a mansion run by two bisexual women, Elizabeth and Eva, who are waiting for the Marchioness to arrive with with her servants. Eva has a bit of slap and tickle with the con man, named Mark. Elizabeth is jealous and when Mark's fellow thieves are waiting outside the gates to tear strips from him, Eva decides to kill them all. Later on, there is a party in which Mark is the only male guest. He soon finds out that the women's parties involve killing their guest and drinking their blood. This is apparently a regular happening. Elizabeth and Mark hide in the stables while Eva is eaten alive. Mark tells Elizabeth that he loves her and she practically laughs in his face before killing him and sauntering off into the sunset hand in hand with the Marchioness. Fascination is Jean Rollin's finest hour in which all of his themes, motifs and ideas coalesced to form a sumptuous, sinister whole. The inclusion of French porno starlet Brigitte Lahaie as Eva was a stroke of genius. Whenever the beautiful Brigitte wields her scythe, it amounts to some of the most iconic moments in French horror cinema - she's like a gorgeous avenging angel of death. As usual, Rollin is more interested in the dynamics between women than he is with men. It is fair to say that there is a large amount of female nudity and lesbianism in the movie, but the film's style is so perfectly Rollin-esque it is a joy to behold for his fans.